Harry Potter and the He's Not Really In It That Much
by HimmelreichLYNX
Summary: Vaguely based off of the events in the 6th novel. Draco and Hermione must work together to defeat the Beast which Lord Voldemort has unleashed on Hogwarts in a plot to kill Dumbledore. In doing so, they discover their true love for each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!**

**AN: So I decided to re-format some things. I've mushed together the first and second chapters since they were both relatively short. I didn't want the third chapter to be so gigantic in comparison to the first two, so I figured it was for the best. Anyway, enjoy! And as always, reviews would be greatly appreciated. Feedback always helps! Thank you. **

"Do you love me Ron?" Hermione asked nervously, hands behind her back while she pensively studied her shoes.

"Of course I do Mione! I left Lavender for you, isn't that proof enough?" Ron was more than a little tired of hearing this same question which Hermione seemed to be repeating with an increasing frequency.

Hermione sighed, eyes still fixed on her shoes, and Ron found himself at a loss. He didn't know what more he could do to profess his love to Hermione. He tried grand floral arrangements, yet that only embarrassed the modest Hermione. He tried serenading her on one of the Hogsmead outings. Yet this too was a bit much for Hermione to handle. Although she had assured him it had nothing to do with his singing abilities, he knew he had been a little more than a tad off key.

"Well, I need to go help Neville with some plants he was talking about earlier today. I'll see you later, ok?"

"What plants?" Hermione inquired

"I don't know, magic ones?" Ron replied sheepishly.

Hermione knew he had only gotten an "Acceptable" on his Herbology OWL. For the life of her she could not imagine why Neville would want, or even need his help.

Ron leaned in to kiss Hermione, but hesitated as if trying to decide whether or not to go through with it, but at the last moment he changed his mind and gave her an awkward peck on the forehead then quickly skirted off down the hallway.

Hermione, as if broken out of a trance, put her books down and sat down on the floor. With a blank expressionless face she mused on the past few months she had spent with Ron. It was not what she had expected, not at all. She thought back to how she had felt in those first few weeks. She used to be excited to see him, now everything seemed mundane. Something was very off. Any semblance of passion in their relationship had long gone, leaving only a stark awkwardness. She didn't know what to do. Obviously Ron loved her; he loved her very much indeed. She didn't want to break his heart, but she knew she couldn't pull off this ruse much longer.

"Don't look so sad Granger, the library is still open." An all too familiar voice jeered behind her. Hermione could feel tears welling up in her eyes; the stress was getting to be too much to bear. This was the last thing she needed. She quickly pulled herself together; she couldn't let Draco see she was upset. "Filthy little mudblood, don't cry. Go get your books."

That was the last straw. Hermione got up, whipped around and gave the sneering Draco Malfoy a death glare. "Malfoy you inbred loathsome egocentric albino pig! I've had more than enough of your pathetic insults. Don't you ever tire of this? Because I am damn tired! Sick and tired! Damn you to hell Malfoy!" With that Hermione dusted off her skirt and stormed off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

Draco was grinning wildly. He had not had so much fun all morning. But that smile quickly faded. It was time that he completed the task which was assigned to him. He knew he ought to view his task as an honor. The Dark Lord had singled him out as the one to allow the Death Eaters infiltrate Hogwarts. Yet he felt… wrong as if his destiny lied elsewhere.

"The cabinet…" Draco mumbled to himself. This need to tend to it, to mend it had become instinctive as if the piece of furniture called to him; "come to me Draco" it whispered, always in his thoughts. He knew what must be done; he had to obey his father's wishes as it was in his nature to do. He had to obey the Dark Lord and prove his worth. He had to obey the cabinet. He lifted his head up high and strode with purpose to the seventh floor corridor searching for the tapestry of Barnabus and Barnby. Suddenly a door appeared and Draco entered the Room of Requirement.

There it was: The Vanishing Cabinet, the key to the Dark Lord's plan. He walked up to its ancient grey wooden doors and placed an apple inside. He then pointed his wand at it and whispered "_Harmonia Nectare Passus_". He then proceeded to re-open the doors. To his delight, the apple had vanished. The Vanishing Cabinet's ancient power was well on its way to being restored. Satisfied with today's test he turned to leave.

"My dear Draco, you have done well."

It was the Dark Lord himself. Well, sort of himself. There was no way he could have gotten into Hogwarts by his own means at this point in time. Draco was frozen in fear. He didn't know what to do. So he spoke, his voice shaking as he attempted to mask his sheer terror.

"My Lord, how…how did you get in?"

"Never mind that Draco, I order you to quit fixing that cabinet. It will be of no further use to me. I found a better way of achieving my aims."

"Ye..Yes my Lord. Wha..What do you mean by that?" A stuttering Draco replied, his fists clenched in an attempt to keep himself from visibly shaking.

"I need you to lure Harry Potter down a corridor in the north end of the castle. There you will find a near forgotten secret door, which the both of you will enter. You will know you have found the right door when you see the carving of a peculiar looking animal that is half snake half griffin. This is your task, my dear Draco, do not disappoint me."

"Absolutely my Lord! It will be done!" Draco dared not ask what he was to do in this secret room or how he would go about finding it. However as the Dark Lord turned to leave Draco sheepishly called out after him.

"Umm… My lord? What about the Vanishing Cabinet? Is it really of no use to you? I have fixed it enough so that an individual could transport themselves here and back safely once."

As the Dark Lord turned back to face him Draco quickly averted his gaze to the floor, instantly regretting that he questioned the Dark Lord's motives.

" If this is indeed true Draco, this could be of some use in the future. You have done well. You have been of great use to me. I dare say you will continue to be of use in the future."

Pleased with himself, Voldemort walked off into the shadows and disappeared. Draco felt sick, he was terrified of the Dark Lord and was glad that he had left. Later in the Slytherin common room Draco sat on a couch staring pensively into the fire before him. Where in the north end of the castle could this corridor be? He knew he would have to complete this task soon, the Dark Lord was not known for his patience. When would he be able to sneak about the castle in search of this room and not get caught? The sound of heavy footsteps pulled Draco out of his trance. Draco turned to see Crabbe and Goyle as they lumbered through the door, each clumsily carrying a wide array of pastries in their arms.

"You imbecilic oafs! Can't you see I'm thinking here? Do the lot of you never consider another's feelings?"

Crabbe shifted uneasily from one foot to another, processing what Draco had just said. Goyle began moving his right hand as if to scratch his head, but reconsidered when he realized that he was still carrying the pastries. So instead, after a moment of deep contemplation Goyle's face lit up upon deciding on the appropriate response to this situation.

" Did you want some too?" He asked while attempting to offer Draco a pastry and smiling hopefully.

"NO! I do NOT want a pastry! I want you to LEAVE!"

Goyle nearly jumped out of his trousers in surprise at Draco's response. He nodded quickly mumbled a "Yes Malfoy" and then jolted out of the room. Crabbe remained standing there, utterly confused as to how to react.

"WHY are YOU still standing HERE? LEAVE!"

When Draco finally had the common room all to himself again, he brought his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. He found that he was beginning to get a headache. Maybe he had been too hard on them he ventured… No no, he had not. Lately it seemed those idiots were never there when he needed them and always appeared at the most inopportune moments. Draco slumped back into the couch and sighed. He had a task and had no idea where to start.

On the other side of the castle, over in the Gryffindor common room Hermione sighed and found that she was beginning to develop a headache. Her little run in with Malfoy had not helped things. Not only that but she had been avoiding Ron like mad the whole day; this she realized was something that she had been doing a lot recently. She cared for Ron deeply, but she knew she would never care for him in the same way he cared for her. Love was not something she could force.

"Hey Hermione, how's it going?"

Hermione smiled warmly at Harry whose hair appeared more unruly than usual and was wearing his pajamas.

"Are you off to bed Harry?" Hermione inquired.

"Not quite yet, I just got myself comfortable. Is there something troubling you? You seem somewhat...put off?"

Why did Harry always have to be so perceptive about her feelings? Especially when she was in no mood whatsoever to discuss them. Hermione evaded an answer by fake yawning loudly and stretching her arms above her head.

"Oh my , would you look at the time! Why, its nearly ten pm! I am exhausted and I really should be going to sleep. There's going to be that really hard test in erm...Potions! Yes! Potions! I really must be well rested for it so that I may be able to maximize my performance!"

"There's a test tomorrow in Potions!?"

As she tossed and turned in bed, covers pulled up over her head, Hermione felt a twinge of guilt at her fib. However she really didn't want to discuss anything with Harry right now, not tonight.

The next morning went by without incident. Hermione sat with Harry and Ron at breakfast. Despite the initial awkwardness that Hermione felt due to her close proximity to Ron, it vanished quickly. By focusing the majority of her attention on Harry she was able to put herself at ease. Unbeknownst to Harry he was acting as the buffer between Hermione and Ron, breaking the awkwardness and bringing laughter. One would think that all was well between the three old friends by the way they laughed with one another.

"Ron, what was it that you had to help Neville with those magical plants yesterday? I cant for the life of me imagine why-"

" That is none of your concern Hermione." Ron stated abruptly, blushing as he cut Hermione off mid sentence. Ron eyed his food in an effort to avert Hermione's inquisitive gaze.

If anything Ron's evasive attitude about what he was doing yesterday only further piqued Hermione's curiosity, but she dropped the subject...for now. As Hermione glanced about the dining hall absentmindedly her eyes fell upon Draco Malfoy, who was staring intently at her. Hermione shot him a mean look but he kept on staring. Uncomfortable, Hermione decided to drop this too and act like nothing was bothering her. An art that she was by now without a doubt very well versed in.

In Potions Hermione heard Harry sigh loudly in relief. No doubt due to the fact that there was no test. After a fairly uneventful class, as Hermione, Ron, and Harry were about to head over to their next classes the trio were stopped dead in their tracks by a loud, angry shout.

"POTTER! Get over here!"

It was Draco, scowling, and holding a very familiar looking object in his right hand.


	2. Chapter 2

That morning Draco woke up very early to begin his search for the secret room. He had decided it would be beneficial to skip Potions to allow ample time for his search. Upon knowing what the Dark Lord had assigned him, he was anxious to complete his new task as soon as possible. He slipped out of the Slytherin common room clutching a basic map of Hogwarts detailing its main locations. He figured that this would be a good starting point and would keep him from getting too lost.

Draco soon found that in fact the map was quite unnecessary. Strangely enough he felt himself being drawn to a certain area in the north end of the castle that he hadn't even known existed. It was as if he had been possessed and was merely a passenger in his body as it walked him straight to an empty corridor. _The Dark Lord must have had something to do with this,_ Draco reasoned with himself. While walking along the seemingly vast corridor, Draco noticed that despite its dull and barren appearance it had floor to ceiling windows on one side, while the other was laden with doors of all sizes. Soon enough he found what he was looking for. At the very end of the corridor were two dark double doors with a carving of the half snake half griffin creature that the Dark Lord had spoken of._ Good, that was a lot easier than I expected,_ Draco thought.

Draco checked his pocket watch and was very pleased to see that he wouldn't need to skip potions after all. it was still early and everybody was still eating breakfast in the Great Hall, and that was when an idea struck him. He was reminded of a certain potions book that Harry seemed to guard very closely. Despite the fact that he had it on loan from Professor Slughorn, and it wasn't actually his own, Harry was quite possessive of it and never let anyone else use it. He took it everywhere with him even to the Great Hall when he was eating. Thus Draco rationalized that if he were to steal the potions book from Harry, he could later prompt Harry to chase after him to get it back. That way he could lure Harry to the secret room. He still didn't know what would happen when they were in the room together, maybe it would have something to do with the cabinet...no no, the Dark Lord said the cabinet would not be a part of this plan.

Draco decided he would go straight to the Great Hall and steal Harry's potions book. Once he arrived there he sat down at the Slytherin table alongside Crabbe and Goyle. Draco scanned the vast room for the Golden Trio, finally he spotted them laughing and talking animatedly over at the Gryffindor table . Harry, laughing the loudest while making wild gesticulations was saying something that seemed to be of great interest to Hermione. Ron on the other hand was desperately shoveling food into his mouth._ How revolting, but what else could one expect from a Weasle with such a poor family background, thought Draco._

He then found himself absentmindedly turning his attention over to Hermione, she was smiling widely at whatever Harry was talking about. Draco had never really looked at Hermione but now that he was scrutinizing her he noticed how warm her chocolate brown eyes were, and how they shone brilliantly when she laughed. He had to admit that this year her normally unruly mass of hair had tamed itself down a notch or two. When light filtering in from the window hit her smooth wavy locks, he couldn't help for just a moment admire how they appeared almost amber in color.

Suddenly Hermione's blissful expression changed as her features contorted into a mask of confusion. Her warm eyes narrowing at Ron, who was staring at the food on his plate sheepishly. _Lover's quarrel?_ Draco wondered as he contemplated Hermione and Ron's interactions._ How did she end up with that Weasel? She is so evidently out of his league._ But before that thought could develop any further Draco caught himself. What was wrong with him. She was a mudblood! Draco was appalled at the thoughts that had just been crossing his mind only seconds ago._ I could never be attracted to the disgusting, filthy, worthless, beautifu-wait what?_ Draco didn't understand what was wrong with him so he did the only thing he knew he could do, he looked straight at her and scowled. A few moments later, Draco saw Hermione return his gaze. She was puzzled, understandably so but he held her gaze till she turned away and ignored him. Good, he thought to himself, she hates me just as much as I hate her.

Crabbe noticed Draco staring in the direction of the Gryffindor table.

"What are you looking at Malfoy? The mudblood?"

"No you oaf! Why would I be staring at her? She is scum! I don't care about her!"

He didn't care about her, he really didn't. Did he? No no. He didn't. He had no reason to be attracted to the mudblood. All these years he had teased and tormented her, putting her in her place, and making sure that she knew she was less than him. So he again made himself focus on his task at hand, and pushed the strange sensation that he had felt when her eyes had met his out of his head.

After contemplating for a while on how to swipe the Potions book from Harry, Draco decided it would be unwise to try to do this during breakfast or Potions class. Draco waited patiently through class, his eyes never leaving Harry's book. He wondered what would be the best way to steal it. Draco noticed that Harry had kept the Potions book separate from the rest of his books, and decided that he would use this to his advantage. As Harry, Hermione, and Ron ascended the steps to exit the dungeon classroom, Draco decided that this was his window of opportunity.

Draco snuck up behind Harry, Hermione and Ron, staying only a few steps behind and then silently lunged forward and grabbed the book. Luckily for Draco, Harry hadn't noticed, he just kept walking and chatting simultaneously with his two friends. Draco stood by the entrance to Potions class and watched as the trio walked away,_ it's high time to get Potter's attention,_ Draco decided.

"POTTER! Get over here!"

Harry, Hermione and Ron spun around to see Draco scowling at them. That scoul morphed itself into a sneer and Draco held up the book.

"Forget something important, Potter?"

"Thats my book! Give it back! Give it back at once!"

Harry's aggravated tone told Draco that he had just hit a nerve by taking Harry's book. Good, _I'd better start running soon,_ Draco thought.

" Well, I don't see your name on it, Potter!" Draco proceeded to roughly open the book to it's front cover.

"In fact I see another name, Property of the Half Blood Prince, huh. Well, I'm sorry your Highness but I'll be taking this book now if you don't mind."

With that Draco turned and ran as fast as he could. Harry quickly followed suit and was right behind him. Hermione, who was watching all of this, and had been attempting to rationalize why Draco would want Harry's Potions book, found herself running right behind Harry. Ron stood there, very confused and decided to stay out of it. _Harry and Hermione are more than able to deal with Draco they won't be needing me_, Ron reasoned, and then wandered off to his next class.

The chase continued, Harry was close behind Draco but not close enough to try to grab the book out of his hands. Suddenly Harry slipped, tripped, and fell. His face reddened as he realized what had happened.

"Are you ok Harry?" Hermione asked, she had caught up to him and was in the process of peeling a bashful Harry off the floor.

"I'm fine, but thats not important. We can't let Malfoy get away with that book!"

Hermione nodded in agreement, paused, looked around and took in her surroundings, and realized she had no idea where they were. The hallway in front of them split into two separate corridors, she hadn't seen, or she couldn't remember which one Draco had run down.

"Harry, did you see which way Malfoy went?"

Harry bit his lip and shook his head.

"Well, it seems like we are going to have to split up. I'll go left,Harry, you can go right."

The two friends, then split up and began running in the opposite two directions.

Hermione, panting and running as fast as she could, soon found herself in a long corridor. She had never been in this part of the castle before, not that that came as a surprise to her, the castle in all its enormity was near impossible for a single student to traverse entirely.

It was a well lit corridor, one wall was made up completely of floor to ceiling windows. However the light filtering in hardly lifted the mood of the drab corridor. All the light did was bring one's attention to the millions of dust particles floating about in the air.

Hermione slowed her pace down to a jog as she noticed that she was coming to a dead end, well not quite a dead end. Before her were enormous, ancient looking double doors. They had been left ajar open, and Hermione, being the brave and inquisitive Gryffindor that she was couldn't help but feel herself drawn to enter the door and investigate.

Inside Draco had been waiting patiently in the dimly lit room for Harry to arrive, soon enough he heard footsteps, which as they approached the door slowed their pace and then stopped completely. Draco could hear somebody breathing heavily just outside the doors. _Come on Potter, get in here, I don't have all day._ He really didn't, Draco wanted to get whatever was going to happen over with so that he could get on with his life.

To his great relief the door was slowly pushed open. A dark figure cautiously stepped into the dimly lit room. Draco squinted to try and get a better look at who had entered, but he couldn't see any details. _Its got to be Potter_, Draco rationalized as he snuck behind the figure and slammed the door shut.

Hermione, startled by the sudden loud noise disturbing her otherwise serene surroundings, felt her whole body tense up and had to stifle a scream. _Hermione, pull yourself together, its fine, you're not hurt, it was probably just a draft._ After reassuring herself, Hermione allowed her eyes to adjust to the dark surroundings. She couldn't see any details, only the basic form of what looked like pillars in front of her. The room had to be gigantic for there to be so many of them, and then she saw it. In the middle of the pillars was a large statue. Hermione slowly walked forward to investigate. As she approached the statue she started to make out its details, and how intricately it had been sculpted. It was a statue of an odd looking creature, the likes of which she had never seen before. Hermione felt herself getting drawn in closer and closer to the statue.

By now she had completely forgotten about the Potions book and Draco, all that seemed to matter to her was that statute, to touch it, and to marvel at this fascinating beast that it was depicting. The beast had what looked like the large feathered wings and four taloned legs of a Gryffin, but the long scaled body of a serpent. Hermione paused in front of the statue of this magnificent beast to take it all in.

Draco saw the dark figure (Hermione) walk cautiously forwards. It occurred to Draco that he hadn't taken the time to look around and figure out what exactly was so special about this room. After about a minute of scrunching his face and squinting his eyes, he saw the pillars and the statue. He too felt himself drawn forward to touch the statue.

Both Draco and Hermione, completely ignorant of the other, reached forward and touched the statue at the same then felt a mixture of dizziness and an odd pins and needles sensation creeping up from the tips of their toes to the tops of their heads.

Suddenly there was a very bright flash of light and for a split second Draco and Hermione saw each other and locked eyes.

_Oh God , what have I done? How could I be such an idiot! Its over, I've failed... I'm finished!_ Were the thoughts racing through Draco's head as he realizing his atrocious mistake. Before Draco could even begin to think about what to do he felt himself falling, and saw that Hermione was as well, the lights were fading, and he blacked out.


End file.
